A petite, young and cute looking female character.
The definition of a loli doesn't depend on the age of the character. A character can be 12, 13 or younger and doesn't qualify as a loli while a 20 or 30 year old character can be a loli.
While most loli characters have childish bodies, it is not necessarily a requirement to qualify as a loli. Case in point; Hestia from Danmachi and Uzaki-chan from Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! are both lolis.
The main requirements for a character to be a loli are being petite, small, short, young looking and cute.
Person: "Rebecca is my favorite loli" Ignorant person: "She's not a loli! She's a petite woman!"
Person: "What did you even think a loli is?"
It literally just means an anime girl who looks young and has a child like body, regardless of whether she's 18+ or not. It is not a bad word you idiots, the bad word is lolicon, a person who is attracted to lolis. Loli does not mean a sexualized child.
Also please don't call real people lolis. Please learn how to differentiate between anime girls and real girls. Don't take japanese words and twist them into something they're not, and then try to cancel a Japanese person for saying loli because 'according to your definition loli is a sexual word' stfu
The more accurate definition is a small and/or young girl with a small frame, meaning flat chest, small waist and hips, but they act usually in a cute and innocent manner. Usually in animes, the typical loli will be shorter than the rest of the characters, even for their age.
Loli has 3 definitions, arranged according to popularity. (Source at the bottom)
1. Loli - Young girl/Young-looking girl; age neutral; SFW by default. Its also used to describe a body type, age is ignored.
Its an abbreviation of Japanese colloquial word "Lolita", which has exactly the same meaning defined above. (Don't confuse it with the twisted American definition of "Lolita".)
2. Loli - Abbreviation of Lolita Fashion. example: goth-loli, wa-loli, hime-loli, etc.
The 'Lolita' in Lolita fashion is also derived from the same 'Lolita' defined in (1). Its a victorian style fashion mixed with Japan's kawaii culture.
3. Loli - Abbreviation of lolicon (Lolita Complex), which is an attraction to loli(1). The attraction can be non-sexual, or sexual. Barely anyone uses 'loli' as 'lolicon', to the point that no one actually knows that this definition even exist. Only used in a very specific context, or very 'special' kind of people.
Hentai sites doesn't actually use this definition in their tags, they use the first definition. Ironically, this is used by 'special' people in twitter, tiktok, and even facebook, just to fit their narrative that this word is a 'bad/derogatory' word, and will only spread this definition to others, ignoring the first and second definition.
Example 1:
Person A: "Finally! my loli(1) squad is complete!"
Person B: "noo! don't call them loli(3)! do you know it has sexual connotations?"
Person A: "huh? loli(1) means young girl/young-looking girl in my tweet. wtf are you talking about?"
Example 2:
Person A: "Don't you think this goth-loli (2) dress look cute?"
Person B: "uhmmm.... i think you should stop using the word loli(3)? Its a derogatory word." Person C: "omg someone's is offended over a fucking fashion style."